[pippa93]

Hi,

I have a Netgear DG834PN Router. Connected to it usually are 2-3 laptops (XP, Vista, 7) wirelessly, a Xbox 360 and Win 7 PC via cables, a wireless printer and often an iPod touch, however PS3s, mobile phones etc are connected occasionally.

It had been functionally normally.until we changed ISP after ours was taken over (we didn't change but the provider obviously now has). However, since then (1st Feb) we've been having connection issues, probably an IP address conflict where items can access the router but not the internet.

The iPod and Xbox sometimes don't connect, as do the laptops often after been powered up from a sleep. Yesterday, when powering up one of the laptops, I got an IP address conflict message.

Restarting the router sometimes helps, but mostly it allows one device on and not another.

The printer has a static IP address (192.168.0.4) that I had to set up to get it working, but this has been active for months now without issue.

I've had a look in the router settings and it's set up for DHCP as default with IP addresses from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254 so I don't understand why it has this issue suddenly. I had a look at the connected devices list, and everything appeared to have its own IP address.

Could it be the change in the ISP?

thanks for any help

[cwwozniak]

Originally Posted by pippa93

The printer has a static IP address (192.168.0.4) that I had to set up to get it working, but this has been active for months now without issue.

DHCP as default with IP addresses from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254

You need to have any device with a static IP address, like the printer, outside of the DHCP range. Otherwise, there is always a chance that the DHCP server in the router will assign the IP address to a another device. The simplest solution would be to narrow the DHCP range to something like 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.254

Not sure why the problem did not become noticeable until you had the ISP switch.

[pippa93]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I've done so now, and hopefully that should solve the problem.

I'd come across that suggestion elsewhere, but disregarded it as it'd been static for months.

[cwwozniak]

You're welcome.

Depending on if the printer was always turned on, what DHCP connected devices were connected at a given time, DHCP lease times, and how the router rotated through the list of available DHCP addresses, you may have just been lucking out all of these months.

Please come back in a few days and let us know if the problem went away. If so, you can mark this topic as solved.

[pippa93]

Unfortunately, this has solved one problem and caused another.

The printer now doesn't work. It's a samsung 4500-w one connected wirelessly.

It used to have a static IP of 192.168.0.4. but since I changed the DHCP range to above that, it didn't work. I tried removing it and reapplying it from the printer's settings (by typing in the IP address of the printer into a web browser and going through the steps to give it a static one there) and by looking on the router's connected devices list, it is connected at that IP address.

The printer settings say it's connected to the correct network, but the Samsung SmartThru bit on the computer says that the "Network Printer Status is not available."

Which makes no sense at all. When I try and click on the "printer settings" tab in the SmartThru, it tries to take me to 192.168.0.26, which is the DCHP address that the printer would have got, not its static one, but I can't see how I can tell the laptop that the printer is at a certain IP address.

[pippa93]

Ah, have reinstalled printer on this laptop, and it has worked. Will be minor inconvenience to reinstall on others, but should work. Thanks for previous help.

[cwwozniak]

Glad to hear you figured it out.

[pippa93]

This problem has unfortunately appeared back again.

The DHCP is set to be from 192.168.0.20 to .254, and the only static IP address is for the printer, .04. However, it seems to be assigning a device an IP address, then when that device is put into sleep mode, reassigning that IP address to something else, causing a conflict.

I can't see how this can be resolved without giving everything a static IP address. I've heard temporary solutions, such as rebooting the router or the two conflicting devices, but this isn't going to solve the problem in the long term.

[cwwozniak]

By any chance is the router being power cycled or rebooted while one of the computers is sleeping or hibernating? I had a similar problem a couple of months ago where that was the likely cause.

[geek117]

As a better solution, why don't you add a DHCP reservation on the router for the printer?

[cwwozniak]

If you already have a static IP for the printer, then geek117's suggestion might not help. However, having the router reserve DHCP addresses based on the MAC addresses of the computers and other devices might solve your problem.

[geek117]

Originally Posted by cwwozniak

If you already have a static IP for the printer, then geek117's suggestion might not help. However, having the router reserve DHCP addresses based on the MAC addresses of the computers and other devices might solve your problem.

Well, I'm simply suggesting that all static or reserved addresses be managed on the router so that it is easier to see what the issue is. The router logs any IP addresses given out, and the MAC addresses they go to.

[pippa93]

May try adding a DHCP reservation for the printer, but it might throw a wobbly at that and refuse to work again.

The router will only reserve addresses inside its DHCP range, and can't set up static IP addresses outside of that. The printer therefore has to have a static one set up via the printer's set up options.

I do think that power cycling the router will be causing some of the IP conflicts, but obviously for the router to need to be rebooted, something must have caused a device to have lost the Internet connection, and I can't figure out what that is in the first place, and why it suddenly began happening with the ISP change. However, whilst this is happening it seems that a (annoying but necessary) solution would be to ensure every device isn't in hibernate or sleep mode before rebooting the router.

Thanks for all the additional help: the responses are so quick and helpful.

[geek117]

What type of ISP do you have, and what kind of modem are you using? I've had issues with my Motorola Surfboard from my cable provider, and Netgear routers. If we could take a step back for a minute, let's make sure we've got a few steps covered:

1) Is the modem up to date with the latest firmware (if applicable)?
2) Is the router up to date with the latest firmware?
3) Depending on the modem, is DHCP turned off on the modem but enabled on the router? Multiple DHCP servers will DEFINITELY cause problems.